Listening carefully to shop stewards attending the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa)’s special national congress (SNC) in Boksburg in December 2013, one felt that the union had reached its gatvol moment not only with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)’s central executive committee (CEC), but also with Tripartite Alliance partners: the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). It was a congress of angry songs with voetsak making it into the lyrics. When it came to resolutions most of them were no-holds-barred, writes Elijah Chiwota.